A loving home, a helping hand

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SPECIAL/The Times-Union
The Goodall family, shown in Kenny Goodall's healthier days, includes Kenny and Karen and their children, Konner (from left), Kolton, Kollin, Kaley and Kaleb. Kendyl, now 15 months, joined the family after this photo was taken. The eight-member family has been making do in a two-bedroom house, but Builders Care is getting ready to renovate the home to add much-needed space.

Jon M. Fletcher/The Times-Union
Karen and Kenny Goodall of St. Johns County stay positive, even though he has been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease.



A builders charity is renovating a full house for a family of 8




By Dana Treen, The Times-Union


In a still-rural patch of St. Johns County, Kenny and Karen Goodall are getting a bigger house to hold the love of a large family.

It also might help absorb the deep loss they know is coming.

This week, crews will begin a 10-day project to renovate and expand the house on Florida 16 where the Goodalls are rearing six children while Kenny Goodall nears the end of his life in the grip of Lou Gehrig's disease.

At 7 a.m. Wednesday, after a prayer, an estimated 200 volunteers with Builders Care, a charity of the Northeast Florida Builders Association, will begin more than $100,000 worth of work using donated labor, skills and materials, said Chris Simons, pastor and director of operations for the charity.

"When we say 'amen,' we have 90 minutes to empty the house," Simons said.

Then demolition begins. Walls will be stripped to the studs and new rooms will be added. The work is scheduled to be done March 29.

The 42-year-old father's condition was diagnosed nearly two years ago.

What began as a weakness in his arm has left Kenny Goodall barely able to speak or move. Two months after the diagnosis, they learned they were having their sixth child, Karen Goodall said.

Now a 15-month-old with curls, their youngest daughter, Kendyl, was all over the house Sunday, dressed in a pink dress and matching sunglasses.

Their oldest child is son Kollin, 14.

When the diagnosis of Lou Gehrig's disease came in April 2006, doctors told Kenny Goodall he might live two years.

Also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease is a weakening of muscles that happens when the brain loses its ability to send signals to make the muscles move. Eventually, he could just stop breathing.

On Sunday, Karen Goodall said she believes her husband will see his 43rd birthday in May.

"There's good days and there's bad days," she said. "We've had to talk about some delicate things lately, but he's OK."

She said the wood frame house, where the baby slept in the laundry room and desks for their welding business were in the hallway, was the couple's only source of tension.

There was no room even for Bible study classes like the one where the Goodalls met in 1988.

"There is no quiet space here," she said.

They always intended to build a new home or move to another place, she said.

Sunday, thoughts of a renovated house caused tears to well in her eyes.

"I think now that Kenny, that he's not going to be around, it's going to be special to me," she said of the once-disliked house. "It's become a home. It's taken special meaning."

Sitting on the edge of her husband's recliner Sunday, she listened to him whisper the letters to words or slowly mouth sentences.

"You always wanted people to come over," he told her.

Communication is tough, but in one quick moment, two of the couple's young sons won a faint nod of approval from their dad for frozen treats, bypassing mom and bolting for the freezer.

The family will leave the house while the renovations are done. Simons said crews will work 12-hour days, except on Easter, to finish.

Exterior walls will be opened to add two bedrooms to the house where two bedrooms and a converted den now are used for sleeping.

A third bathroom, a family room and a study will be added and existing wiring, walls and roof will be replaced or rebuilt.

"They always wanted to build a house and now they are changed [by the illness] and we are going to help them," Simons said.

Builders Care learned of the Goodalls through friends of the family. The charity began planning the work in January, Simons said.

"It was one of those things that was too good to be true," Karen Goodall said.

When she first told her husband what Builders Care was planning, he cried, she said.

The couple have always had deep faith in God, she said.

"The Lord always sends someone our way," she said.

Simons said the Goodalls' ties with the construction industry through their welding business adds a special element to the job.

"He's one of us, he's blue collar like the rest of the men and women who will be working on this," Simons said.

Simons said he hopes the work gives Kenny Goodall an added sense of peace.

"He knows where he is going, but his wife and kids are going to be here," he said.

dana.treen@jacksonville.com (904) 359-4091

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